Wednesday, July 08, 2009

The Implosion Continues

My goodness! These Republicans are falling like rocks, aren't they? You would think that at least one of the geniuses who pose as her "advisers" would have had the wit to read that statement beforehand and say to her:

I prefer Rachel Maddow's take on the train wreck that at at one time was known as "the political career of Sarah Palin." On her MSNBC program last night she guffawed:

"Only quitters stay in their jobs. Only fighters have the courage to quit."

Perfect! A tip of the hat is in order for poor old Dan Quayle. Prior to Governor Palin's nomination as vice-presidential candidate ten months ago, he was generally regarded as the very worst choice of a running mate in living memory. All that has changed. Compared to Sarah, Danny boy is starting to look like Albert Einstein.

E=M.C. Hammer.

I guess the time has come for all of us breathe a collective sigh of relief. But for the mysterious workings of fate, President McCain would at this minute be snoozing away in the White House and this idiotic woman would be a seventy-three-year-old heartbeat away from the Oval Office. Regardless of one's political viewpoint or party affiliation, it must be admitted that we really dodged a bullet with the defeat of the McCain/Unable ticket last November. Had these two been inaugurated on January 20, the law of averages virtually guaranteed that at some point between the years 2009 and 2013 this country would have been stuck with President Gidget von Braun.

In his column a few days ago in the Washington Post, Richard Cohen suggested that John McCain's judgment should be put into question for making such an abysmal choice when he chose Governor Palin. Much as I admire Cohen as a writer, his assessment isn't quite fair. McCain's first two choices were former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge or that doofus Joe Lieberman. It was the Right Wing extremists who control the Republican party that forced Sarah Palin down his throat.

Instead of focusing a glare of condemnation toward John McCain, the real target of our collective wrath should be aimed at the "grand old party" itself.Think about that for a minute: So far down the ideological deep end has that party fallen, the prospect of a probable Sarah Palin presidency seemed to most of them a perfectlyfine and dandy idea. A new Gallup poll has just been released: Seventy-one percent of registered Republicans would be "likely" to vote for her if she runs in 2012. Medications, please.

What, you may well ask, is her motivation for committing political suicide by abandoning the office that the people of Alaska entrusted to her care two years ago? When NBC's Andrea Mitchell suggested to her that after ten months in the national limelight, the comparative drudgery of her duties as governor might have started to seem boring, Sarah Palin responded in words that should be etched in granite at the base of Mount Rushmore:

"The nitty-gritty, like, you mean the fish slime and the dirt under the fingernails and stuff that's me?"

Brilliant. Someone hand me my chisel.

Why did she resign? She says that as a lame duck governor she won't be as effective as she would like to be. The fact that she expects the voters of Alaska to swallow this nonsense without a chaser shows the utter contempt she must feel toward the people she was sworn to serve.

Does she really believe that she has a shot at the nomination three years from now? The answer (unbelievably) is yes. Tom DeFrank of the New York Daily News put it well: The woman has "delusions of adequacy".The pundits (most of them anyway) are starting to compare her rambling press conference on July 3 to Dick Nixon's infamous tirade when he lost the California governor's race in 1962 ("You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore"). Some are even daring to suggest that, like Tricky Dick, she will ultimately be victorious. The only problem with that scenario is the fact that there are slightly over one-hundred things that separate Sarah Palin from Richard Milhaus Nixon: I.Q. points.What else were her motivations for quitting? Money. She knows damned well that there is a nice chunk of change to be made in the lower forty-eight and that getting from there to here is an expensive and time-consuming process that infringes upon her gubernatorial responsibilities. Were you aware that the distance between Fairbanks and Washington is almost as great as the distance between Washington and London? What to do? To hell with her constituents and head off to the land of the golden goose.

She claims that one of the major reasons for abandoning her office is that she is sick and tired (Gosh darn it!)of the "politics of personal destruction".

"I'm afraid that this is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist who targeted his own country."

Sarah Palinreferring to candidate Barack Obama's "relationship" to Bill AyersOctober 3, 2008Personal destruction indeed. When asked what her future plans were, she said that she will continue to work overtime for the people of Alaska. Bullshit! I'm willing to bet anyone that in the next twelve months, most - if not all of her time - will be spent in New York and Washington. Any takers?Thenext three years will find her cashing in on her status as a....uhh....well, whatever her status just might be. Count on her making a national speaking tour for at least one-hundred thousand dollars a pop. A radio talk show? Probably. A gig on FOX Noise? That's almost inevitable. There is a fortune to be made here and she's not about to let something as trivial as her oath of office prevent her from making it. By doing what she has done, she has sent the same message the GOP has been transmitting since the administration of Ulysses S. Grant almost a century-and-a-half ago: FUCK THE PEOPLE.

It is a given that nothing is certain in politics - nothing but this, that is: Her action this week, abandoning the office of governor in order to make a quick buck, has virtually guaranteed that we will have Sarah Palin to kick around for some time to come.

Does she really have a chance at the nomination in 2012? I sure hope so. That would be a dream come true.

26 Comments:

OK, the first comment was just obviously dumb. That was easy. But when I read the second one my brain froze for a moment and then went into an endless loop. So either it is a completely senseless comment or it is so intricately genius that even a computer couldn´t figure it out. It sounds like a problem from my logic class in college.

Hi Tom, I was wondering if and when you would join the fray, and given the amount of ink spilt on this empty headed bimbo, I was almost hoping that you would ignore it.

I guess the real question is will we ever learn what her real motivation for quitting is, and more importantly, do we really care? Hopefully she is toast as far as another elected office, but then one can never underestimate the stupidity of some of the American people. After all we did have the amazingly stupid Jug Eared jackass in office for 8 years.

With regards to the GOP, yes they continue to provide more entertainment than Ringling Brother's clowns as they spiral down into the toilet and the only thing that can save them at this point is an industrial strength enema.

Tom and Charles, please don't underestimate the power and, more importantly, the almost unlimited funding of the movement conservatives. Should President Obama's not-aggressive-enough stimulus package fail, or even appear to fail, they'll be back to convince the American people that a return to lower taxes for the wealthy (i.e., "trickle-down" economics) and unregulated markets are the only answers to this horrible economic situation.

This country's full of rednecks, racists, hicks and dumbasses, so it wouldn't take much to sway and convert them. I think they're already lining-up for their initial barrage of propaganda and innuendo. I wouldn't bet any money that Sarah Palin is not the poster-girl to lead the charge.

Be careful of what you wish for. It could come true and become your worst nightmare.

Tom! Buddy! I totally know what you are saying! I hear ya! But I am so totally sick and tired of seeing her, hearing about her and her stupid little cute statements and stunts and issues! I just want to claw my eyes out and run out of the room screaming. The stupid, it burns!

Conservatives are willing to vote for Palin because they hate liberals, not because they love Palin. Conservatives hate close minded extremist democrates/liberals and their beliefs just as much as you hate republicans/conservatives and their beliefs. At least Palin doesn't have a personal agenda like our socialist president.

70 percent of republicans will vote for sarah palin..only 31 percent of americans call themselves republicans..do the math..she is finished..but i like what JG said..and charles moore said..she has a lot of scandals she is hiding

I promise you, this lady only keeps poor baby Trigg at her side because she needs his pee for the drop. I used to laugh at the crystal meth being the primary product manufactured in Wasilla. I'm starting to see a connection here.

Just the other day I had a conversation with a friend who calls himself a conservative (he's not, he's fringe-right). He said he'd vote for her because he wants more "conservative " judges in the Federal courts. I pointed out that it's already 5 to 4. Apparently, his side wants all 9 seats. Be afraid--they walk among us, and they vote!

it obvious that we are paying too much for groceries and other things that support our lives,If there are wackos out there willing to pay $100,000 to see her.think how much cheaper we could live if these people werent making so much money annd charging us less

Tom, first of all your readers like Prairie need to stop and think for a minute before accusing me of writing that crap about Wacko last week...thanks for sticking up for me... Folks, I always leave my name at the end...there is nothing to hide here. As I follow O-Shits (He did compliment "W" today in Ghana as I was snoozing through one his useless speeches) every move since being sworn in. It is becoming pretty obvious to me that his Liberal/Socialistic policies won't cut it. Please don't tell me you are happy with what he's done and plans on doing. All O-Shit's done so far is divide this country like no one has in my lifetime. Tom, your lifelong dream of the Republican Party going away will never happen..not with 60 + million sympathy voters having a brain freeze in November of '08. God willing and if healthy, Palin will be around for a long long time. Glad to see Maddow still has a viewer or two like you...

I think you've realized by now, after following Tom's blog for a number of weeks, that Tom's a fair and reasonable guy. He's cordial and welcoming to his readership, no matter their political standing. And, I'd like to compliment you, too, for continuing to return to his "Rant", despite your obvious opposing outlook. That said, I feel compelled to respond to your latest post.

For some strange reason the Right...you included...really has it out for this president. It's almost as if you, and the rest of the right-wingers in this country, are hoping and willing that his economic policies fail. This makes absolutely no sense to me, Harry. You, and others, have mistakenly misapplied labels to policies that your most visible and notable flag-bearer of the right's cause employed strategically during his tenure in the Oval Office. The surge in government spending, by this president, to assist in jumpstarting an economy that has retrenched into negative spending and private investment, is really no different than what Ronald Reagan did during the 1980s. It's all Keynesian economics, no matter how you choose to slice it or dice it.

The main difference, and this is a big one, is that this president has chosen to spend the money in a way that will instill a multiplier effect into the economic equation. That is, a one-unit change in some variable, "x", will cause another variable, "y", to change by "M" units (Thus, the multiplier is M). Using a real life example, if $100M is invested by the government to have wind-turbines built in this country, and building these turbines results in $300M in growth in the clean energy industry (and a corresponding reduction in imported oil), the multiplier effect will be 3. Now, if all $787B had genuine multiplier effects applied, the resultant ROI (and increased taxes from this gain) should make the stimulus pay for itself in "z" number of years. It's not money wasted; it's investment -- something the private sector isn't doing right now.

Now, let me get back to my comparison between President Obama's and former President Reagan's approach to stimulating the economy. Although both employed Keynesianism as their fiscal policy, Reagan chose to "invest" billions of tax dollars in military armaments and buildup. And, although both policies will "prime-the-pump" and eventually put people to work making things and providing services, the multiplier effect doesn't have the same lasting value when the dollars are destined for the Pentagon. Roads and bridges can be built and used over-and-over again, for generations, whereas bombs and missiles can only be used one time. So, as you can see, and I hope you agree, it's best to invest in those areas that show the most bang for the buck (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun) and where the invested dollars show the largest return. Hopefully, this Congress and this president chose their investments wisely. Time will tell.

In the meantime, I sincerely hope that you'll pull for this president's success. Because if his policies fail, I'm afraid we'll be experiencing a worse economic downfall, and corresponding social upheaval, than any of us can imagine.

Oh, one more thing, Harry. I hope you don't get the idea that I'm an ardent supporter of President Obama. Even before his election, I've been critical of his corporatist-leanings. I realize he has a tough job, made even tougher by the total fuck-ups by the previous administration, but he's way too centrist for me.

As one of my favorite satirists has observed:

"Democrats have moved to the right, and the right has moved into a mental hospital."

Jefferson, you are absolutely insane if you actaully think that will happen. Is Cap & Trade and Healthcare in your theory? The guy is a control freak who has an agenda against the private sector and the rich who don't think the way he does. No one said anything about wanting our country to fail. After 6 months, he has been a total failure. Plus, what does your economics lesson have anything to do with Palin?

My theory? Thank you for giving me credit, but I'm afraid I can't accept it. Keynesian theory has been around a lot longer than me...or you.

Cap & trade and healthcare are too large and complex to discuss here. But, suffice to say, each will save billions of taxpayer dollars in the long run.

"After 6 months, he has been a total failure."

Not true...not totally. Economically, he's doing the right thing. Although, his initial stimulus of $787B wasn't enough. It should have been at least double. But, I agree with you about a few things. For instance, he should have had the balls to go after Bush and his administration for authorizing torture and other crimes against humanity. But, he's a smart man, and I feel he's strategically playing the game. Bush and Cheney will eventually end up in Leavenworth. He knows it, so he's just abiding his time. There are bigger and more important matters to take care of first -- like healthcare reform.

"...what does your economics lesson have anything to do with Palin?"

Oh, I don't know. Fair question, I suppose. Let me ask you, what does your bashing and name-calling of Obama have to do with Palin? (See your previous post with a time-stamp of 9:24 a.m.)

No, wait, I know what it has to do with Palin! She's too ignorant to understand the concepts of Keynesian theory, I'm sure. I'm just as sure that she doesn't even know the name of the economist from whom the theory is named.

Good morning Harry. I can't see where liberals have undeservedly resorted to finger-pointing, as you claim. The fact-of-the-matter is the previous administration brought us to the brink of an economic meltdown. This president had to resort to extenuating means to back us away from the precipice of the abyss. He did the right thing with the Recovery Act, but should have at least doubled it. This financial derivative boondoggle isn't over -- far from it. It's a time-bomb waiting to detonate.

As I already mentioned, I'm not a devoted fan of President Obama. As Bill Maher observed during his "New Rules" segment on Real Time recently when he was castigated by liberals for criticizing Obama, "Get over it -- he's your president, not a religion." I have several items where I believe President Obama deserves resounding criticism. His current economic policy, for the most part, isn't one of them.

Unfortunately, conservatives -- like yourself, always find time to blame the man for trying to shore-up an economy that was handed to him in a garbage bin. I always find it curious that you never can offer constructive ideas or thoughts as to how to solve the dilemma we're still facing. When you can -- and choose to -- I'll listen attentively. Until then, all you're doing is making noise.